2011-04-09 - The Unmasking of Batman and Cassandra Cain
Ah, finally, some private time! Cass has gone out to patrol alone, and Grant is sitting on his much abused couch that Cass sleeps on. He has the T.V. turned onto some late baseball, has a beer on a T.V. tray by him along with a steak and cheese sandwich. He is good to go. The window is left open behind him in case Catseye stops by, cracked open enough for a cat to slip in, or for Cass herself to open and close the not silent thing. It needs some work on it, but Grant doesn't usually have time for the small things. Grant takes a drink of his beer, grinning when his favored team gets a man home. The visitor who does use that window to sneak into the apartment is not one of those two who Ted is expecting. Just hours after the initial meeting of what is apparently the new Justice Society, the Batman slips through the small opening almost soundlessly. Well, he did say he'd be in touch sooner than the week that Ted had proposed. "Leaving a window open in this neighborhood isn't very safe." Grant spins around to look, "Damn! You almost made me spill my beer! I thought you were Cass." He shakes his head, "Not too much to worry about. A meta-hate crowd tried attack my gym and I beat down the entire gang. No one has messed with me much since. Anyway, I'd worry about Catseye getting in and out if the window isn't open, cause then I'd be having to leave the door unlocked." He rolls his eyes. "Anyway, have a seat, baseball is on. Cass is out patrolling, he seemed eager to go beat some more goons up tonight. Beer is in the fridge," clear in the 'get it yourself bucko'. "Ah, man! That wasn't an out!" He curses beneath his breathe. Grant really doesn't fear a whole lot, does he? Batman shakes his head at Grant in slight amusement, though no hint of a grin can be seen on his typically stoic face. He somewhat rudely moves in front of the TV, blocking it from Ted's view. "Sorry to interrupt the game, but I think you know me well enough now to realize this isn't a social call. I've got some things to discuss with you that I couldn't really share in front of the others." He groans, "I suspected, but can't we talk and watch the game at the same time?" Grant really hopes so! "I rarely get the television anymore since Cass discovered martial arts DVDs, thanks to Cassie." The girl he set Bruce to contact. Grant leans back against the couch and takes another drink of his beer. "I'm listening though." Batman isn't much for sharing attention, especially with a televised sporting event. He moves aside so that Grant can see the screen but expects that what he says next will force the elder vigilante to give him his undivided attention. "What would you say if I told you that I can not only get the Justice Society a state-of-the-art satellite-powered communication system but a full range of weapons, explosives, armor, vehicles, and other equipment, and even a multi-million dollar base of operations... absolutely free?" Grant chokes a bit on his beer, "I'd say you are either crazy, rich and crazy, or know someone rich and crazy," he states. He raises the back of his hand to wipe at his mouth. "Not that I wouldn't be appreciative, though I hope we wouldn't need the weapons and explosives. Seems a little excessive. And not sure what I'd do with a multi-million dollar base, but image the number of televisions I could install? I won't have to share one!" He pauses briefly and then adds, "I know you aren't doing it so I can watch sports, but it's a nice thought." Batman blinks and tilts his head slightly. Not the exact reaction he was expecting from Ted, but close. "Have you stopped to wonder at all in the past month, Ted, why, after ten years of fighting the darkness of this city in the shadows and purposefully remaining nothing more than an urban legend to everyone except those who were unfortunate enough to meet me, I chose to reveal myself to you? Or why I trust you above anyone else?" Ted groans, "I'm good at asking questions, not coming up with answers." Detective working is his weakness. But he rubs the back of his neck and takes another drink of beer. "I guess you know of me. If you know much about boxing, I'm pretty famous. I know a number of people have figured out that I was Wildcat. The government sure wasn't too surprised when I came forward about it. I'm just glad they weren't interested in having me as a Sentinel. I served once, not interested in doing it a second time." Ex-military pilot. "Can I get a plane? Stark Tech as a few nice ones out I got to test out in a simiulator. I got to make time to get my pilot licence again, Sentinels said they would pay for it." He takes another drink of beer, sort of rambling. Grant then sighs, "Alright, I give. I likely know you, but I really don't know a bunch of rich folks. Well, maybe a few." He knows Tony Stark, but also knows he is Iron Man. Bruce Wayne reappeared, but come on, he got clocked majorly by Cass! "Are you an ex-pupil?" He starts to take another drink. "You could say that." A very small smile actually does appear on Batman's normally statue-like face, though the effect with the mask is kind of creepy. He doesn't say anything for several moments, then pushes up with both hands on the bottom of the cowl, which is more helmet than mask. The face of Bruce Wayne appears in full view. "I definitely didn't learn my detective skills from you. I had you more or less figured out before I ever came to talk to you in person. That's actually the whole reason I showed up at the gym in the first place." SPEW! There goes the last of the beer in that bottle as Grant really does choke on his beer and coughs. "F#$&!" He stands up, and heads to the kitchenette to get some paper towels to clean himself up, and the living room and T.V. tray. "What the hell Bruce! You let Cass punch you right in the face, are you really Batman?" He is confused, and more than a little surprised. He expected Batman to be able to handle himself, then again, he expected Bruce to be able to handle himself. "What is going on here?" Frustrated and confused. Grant finally forgot about the baseball game. Bruce shakes his head. "She's good, but I could have blocked that punch as easily as I stopped the first one she threw. I took it willingly to maintain my identity. It's become second nature to protect it at all costs. In the early days, there was speculation that there was some sort of connection between me and the Batman rumors. I had to create an entire persona so that nobody would question it anymore -- so that it would be ludicrous to think that this partying, womanizing, somewhat irresponsible heir to Thomas Wayne's fortune could possibly have anything to do with the dark, brooding vigilante that dresses like a bat. I had to... embellish both personalities." He pauses for a moment. "It's nothing against those girls. But if my identity ever got out, Ted, not only would it destroy everything I've worked for the past 10 years as Batman, it could seriously affect my company and my entire life." "No, I understand." Grant sounds sincere at that. "Just..damn." He is shocked. "I need another beer, sure you don't want one?" He does get another beer out of the fridge and opens it up, taking a drink of it before coming back out. He will only bring one out for you if you accept. "I can see the reasoning, and I can see your own sacerfices for the mask." Yes, the fact you restrict the chance of a normal life and family, in the extreme. "I see what you mean by funding, but seriously, how would you hide all of that? Wouldn't the IRS get suspicious?" He moves to have a seat again, cause he really needs one. Batman shakes his head and raises a hand. "No thanks... Not tonight, at least." He sets the rigid cowl on the ground and takes a seat on the recliner, though he sits on the edge in a leaning-forward posture with his elbows resting on his thighs and his hands folded between his knees. "I have so many assets that it's hard for anyone to track them, especially when they're divided up among a dozen or so different subsidiaries. Not to mention that the man who I put in charge of the company knows what I'm up to and has become very good at... creative bookkeeping, to keep things under wraps. You should see some of the stuff I have, Ted. This suit and the gadgets I keep in the belt are nothing. Have you seen my car?" "Just be careful. The government doesn't like creative bookkeeping, and adding that and heroing? Ouch." Grant is concerned, Bruce is his former pupil. "I can't say I imaged this life for you though when I first started your training," he says with a slight sigh. "Alright, so you can provide for the JSA. What about Cass? She was fascinated with you as Bruce, and is equally fascinated with you as Batman. Does she know? Do you know each other from the past?" He seems to suspect she knows now that he can draw the dots together. "I've been doing it for 10 years, Ted. They haven't caught me yet. Much of my gear is repurposed and modified prototypes that would otherwise be sitting in a vault or a warehouse. Nobody realizes that most of it is even missing. I can provide the same sort of stuff for the JSA. As for the base, it might be a little trickier, but there's no reason it can't be done. Especially if we can find an out-of-the-way place with a low probability of being found. I'll have to show you the cave one day. As for Cass, that's a good question..." Bruce contemplates the question for a moment, debating how to answer. Out of the blue, he shoots a hesitant glance towards the open window, then picks up the cowl and pushes it back onto his head before continuing. "I'm not entirely sure who she is or what she knows, but I will tell you everything I do know about her and my theories. But first, can I ask where you found her?" "Cave?" Grant does sound curious. But he nods. Hopefully not too out of the way, gas isn't cheap. Grant studies you however and nods. "I noticed a gang breaking into a used car dealership here in Hobb's Bay. I went chasing after them, but by the time I got inside, they were all out cold. A slender woman was there, or girl rather. She went to lay back down on the seats inside as if to sleep. Likely broke in previously for a place to rest. Anyway, yelled at a warning when I heard the squeal of wheels and gunfire. We both went down and the drive by shooters drove off. If all those guys weren't knocked out, they would have been dead," he tells you. "She goes to chase after the car, but that doesn't work so well. And, I noticed she didn't speak. I brought her home and let her have the couch. I didn't know what else to do with her. I could tell she had talent to take down all those guys in a short amount of time. She also didn't kill a single one of them. She reacted against the gunfire violence as well. She...well, it wasn't the first time I brought in a stray. Anyway, she stuck around more and more often, and she would follow me and help me out. So, I gave her a Wildcat uniform, and it just sort of went from there. She's my family now," he says seriously. "We don't always understand each other, but she's important to me Bruce. So if it's something bad, I want to know. I can figure out she was heavily trained and lacked verbal communication while growing up though she isn't mute. She has no experience with movies, playing games, laughter, nothing. She never got to be a kid," and there is anger in his tone then. Bruce nods, listening to the story. He is quiet for several moments. "I think she has made the connection between the man named Bruce Wayne that she met in the gym several weeks ago and the giant bat that she's run into several times now. It's easy to mask your appearance, facial expressions, demeanor, and voice. It's much harder to change the language of your physical actions, especially in fighting. I made the mistake of catching her first punch. I don't think it took her long to realize who I was once she saw me as Batman." He pauses again, staring not at Ted but at some arbitrary spot across the room for several seconds. "I don't think she recognizes me beyond that, but she definitely recognizes something -about- me. I didn't know what it was at first, but it all goes back to blocking that first punch. I'm going out on a limb here, but have you ever heard of a man named David Cain?" Grant shakes his head no, "Never." He memorizes that name though, David Cain. "I'm guessing there is a reason you are asking though." He isn't stupid, just not the greatest detective on the block.\ Bruce nods again. "I didn't think you would have. If you'll remember, when I stopped training with you as a young teenager, it was because I went to study abroad. I was gone for 8 years. Everyone assumed I was just studying academics and partying. They got the academics part right, but I also studied over one-hundred-and-twenty different forms of fighting arts during that time. One of the men I studied with was named David Cain. He tried to teach me fighting as a language... a way to communicate." He pauses and looks Ted in the eye. "Sound familiar?" Grant's eyes narrow, "Yes. Cass will often hit people as a greeting, as if judging from their reaction if they are deserving of respect or not. Bart got knocked flat on his ass once, and she still approved of him, but I'm not exactly sure why. She has her own way of reading into people that I can't quite grasp. I can read body language in a fight as an experienced fighter but Cass? It's like she knows what I'm doing before I know it." Bruce nods again. "I trained with Cain for several months and learned much from him, though his techniques were much more violent than I prefer to use and sometimes deadly. When I finally came to the full realization that he was a sociopathic killer and was working with a group known as the League of Assassins, I left him and moved on." He sits up straight and takes a deep breath, then looks Ted in the eye once again. "When I first met up with you as Batman on that rooftop, Cass left us to take out a group of thugs. Watching her, I instantly recognized David Cain's fighting style. And somehow, even though I have knowledge of over a hundred different martial arts and use aspects of each and every one of them, she recognized that same style in me, too." Grant curses beneath his breath and runs a hand through his greying hair. His first words? "She isn't like him. She treats life as something important, something precious. She never uses killing moves though I know she is more than able to. She only uses enough force to take someone down for the count, and never excess force. She's just...not malicious," he says sincerely. "She may be trained with his style, maybe this guy even messed with her head, but she's a hero at heart." He has complete faith in Cass, that much is obvious. "She just...needs a chance to be a kid, to laugh, to learn how to communicate with others in a more open manner. She's not a danger. This David Cain though?" The expression hardens on Grant's face. "If he is the one that screwed with Cass? I'd like to see him down for the count." It's rare for Grant to wish someone dead, but anyone that could hurt a child like Cass, to raise her the way they did with likely malicious intent? Yes, Grant wouldn't mind it happening at all. Yep, definately overprotective of Cass. He has fully adopted her. Bruce allows Ted to vent, then nods. "David Cain is a monster. I started looking into him the night I made the connection, and I quickly found that he had been linked to several kidnapping cases. Apparently, in an effort to train a 'perfect sidekick' for himself, Cain tried to brainwash these kids and teach them his 'violence as language' methods. Consensus is that it never worked because nobody has ever seen a child assassin with Cain. Many of the kids escaped and were reunited with their families. Others have never been found. I think Cass is one of those kids... and, judging by what I've seen, maybe Cain's only 'success' story. She definitely seems to use violence as her primary language. I think where he failed with Cass is that she is good at heart. Her aversion to violence against innocents makes me think he used her in a job once, or tried to, and she rebelled." He pauses for a moment, watching Ted's expression closely, before continuing. "I think Cass is a good kid, but she has had a very confusing and screwed up childhood. It's going to take time for her to adjust to a regular life." The pain is there in Grant's eyes, but he closes them and nods. "I...understand." He does not doubt your words. And it takes time for him to gather up his emotions and control them. When he opens his eyes again, the moisture is mostly gone. "Do you think there is anything I can do to make her adjustment easier? Anything at all?" Children are Grant's weakness. Losing his son affected him deeply all those years ago. Bruce shakes his head. "No, nothing except what you've been doing, Ted. Show her the right ways, and don't get too impatient with her. You seem to have made incredible progress with her so far." He watches Ted for a moment. Seeing the emotions in him brings back memories of Dick Grayson. He's never been good with all of this emotional stuff, whether they be his or someone else's. He stands up. "Listen... I know what it's like to take in an orphan who has nothing and nobody left and to try to give their life some sort of meaning. I wasn't very good at it, myself, but if you ever need anything -- especially for Cass -- just let me know." Batman opens one of the back compartments of his utility belt and pulls out what appears to be a very small speaker or walkie-talkie. He places it on the couch next to Ted. "That tiny radio is a direct line to me, practically any time. Don't hesitate to use it. I'll be in touch." Grant gets up and nods, "Thank you." He picks up the radio and watches you go. It will take him a while before he returns to baseball watching, and only after he stores the radio safely in his room, in a hiding place so Catseye doesn't accidentally find it and start playing with it. Category:Logs